Sir Arthur C. Clarke, Rest in Peace
Posted at 23:06:08
on Tue, March 18th 2008 by graham
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From BBC News:
British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90...
Sir Arthur's vivid - and detailed - descriptions of space shuttles, super-computers and rapid communications systems were enjoyed by millions of readers around the world.
He was the author of more than 100 fiction and non-fiction books, and his writings are credited by many observers with giving science fiction - a genre often accused of veering towards the fantastical - a human and practical face.
I think there are few writers that I could name who have been more influential on my own worldview than Arthur C. Clarke. Although his writing has never really influenced mine - I tend to write in a different strand of his genre if at all - it did instil into me some basic rigours of the rule of writing: Be truthful, within your own universe; once you've set the rules for yourself, don't break them and, most importantly of all, Science Fiction is about the people, not the science. The science is incidental.
I remember a line from his book of essays, Greetings, Carbon-based Bipeds!, specifically from his epitaph to Isaac Asimov. It went something like this:
I once introduced Isaac to a dinner by saying "Ladies and gentlemen, there is only one Isaac Asimov." Well now there is no Isaac Asimov and the world is a poorer place for it.
I think that you could pretty much use his own words to describe how a lot of science fiction readers and writers feel right now.
And so one of the greats of our age passes into history. But, as always, his legacy remains.
